This invention relates in general to telephone systems and more specifically to apparatus for locating an intended party to a telephone call while hiding the location of the first party.
Voice mail and electronic mail (email) systems are well known for allowing parties to communicate messages between one another. For example, in a voice mail system when a first party (i.e. calling party) wishes to contact a second party (i.e. called party) via telephone, but the second party is not available, the first party may leave a voice message in the voice mailbox of the second party. Because the voice storage capabilities of most voice mail systems are limited, many callers are inclined to leave very short messages wherein the second party is simply requested to return the call to a telephone number and/or extension for the first party. On the other hand, email messages are typically much more detailed since the text storage capacities of email systems is considerable. However, voice conversations are often preferred over email exchanges since a much greater amount of information can be communicated interactively over a short period of time.
A problem arises with prior art voice mail systems in circumstances when the first party (calling party) wishes to remain anonymous or does not wish to leave a telephone number at which he or she can be reached. For example, when the first party is expecting to be at any one of a number of locations when the second party returns the call (e.g. when the first party is traveling), the first party would be required to leave a succession of voice messages with the second party to update his/her location and contact telephone number. This is wasteful in terms of time and effort on the part of both parties, especially if the second party returns the call to an out-dated location based on information contained in an obsolete voice message.
According to the present invention, a system is provided for a first party to locate a second party via email and to automatically initiate a telephone call from the second party to the first party, and to update the return location of the first party without successive messages. The present invention also allows for the location of the first party to be hidden from the second party.